The best things to do with a big lottery win

Winning millions of dollars on the Powerball or other major lottery game is something that many people dream about every day. It’s common to spend those endless mornings stuck in traffic or those evenings on the bus home from work dreaming about what you’d do if you won the lottery, and everyone has a slightly different answer. But with many lottery winners choosing broadly the same options, there’s a clear trend. Here are five major options that people go for when they’re lucky enough to have won big.

Pay off debts

If you have substantial debts, it’s often a smart idea to use the money from a lottery win to pay them off so that they’re no longer hanging over you – and so that the high interest rates that are charged don’t eat into your winnings over the long term. Whether you’ve been building up debt on your credit card or you’ve borrowed a little too much to pay off your mortgage comfortably, it’s a wise idea to use this golden opportunity to clear the slate and start again.

Buy a gorgeous home

Housing costs are high in America, and they’re often the main source of stress on a family’s budget. For that reason, spending money on stabilizing your housing situation is essential, and that usually involves buying property. Now that you’re a lottery winner, you have the option of going for a gorgeous home, such as a penthouse apartment, a country ranch or an executive home with a pool.

Create a property portfolio

But that’s not the only property-related option. Other lottery winners choose a more modest home for themselves, but develop a property portfolio in other locations in order to maximize the value of their win. That way, they can have further, sustainable income over the course of the rest of their lives without having to ever worry about working again.

Treat your loved ones

Once they’ve sorted out their own personal financial situation, many lottery winners then decide to help out their close loved ones in one way or another. Perhaps you have a friend who is struggling with their mortgage repayments, for example, or maybe you want to make sure your mom can pay her medical insurance bills. Whatever it might be, there’s often a way you can help someone and turn their lives around.

It’s important, however, to do this with discretion. Unfortunately, some friends or family members may feel like they are entitled to some to your winnings – and if you’re not planning to treat them, it may become awkward if they find out you’ve done so for others. So instead of making a big fuss over your donations to others, it’s best to do it quietly and gracefully.

Donate to charity

There’s only so much that money can buy. If you’re a high value prize winner, it’s likely that once you have the home of your dreams and have paid off any debts, you’ll still have more than enough left to live an amazing lifestyle for the rest of your life. For that reason, many lottery winners begin to think about how their money can have even more of an impact beyond their own personal gain.

As the experience of millionaires around the world has shown, donating to charity is a very noble cause – and it’s one that can easily become more rewarding than any number of fancy cars or swanky holidays ever could. For example, if you live in an area with a struggling public institution, such as a hospital or an elementary school, you could consider helping them out with a sizable financial donation. Remember, it’s often possible to do this on a relatively anonymous basis, so don’t feel as if you have to make it public.

How to win?

If all of this talk of lottery wins is making you feel lucky, it’s time to enter! There are lottery tools out there that can help you choose your numbers, and a list of tools is available. But ultimately, the only guaranteed way to be in with a chance is to go down to the store and buy your ticket: remember – you’ve got to be in it to win it!

Everybody daydreams about how their lives would be different if they were ever lucky enough to win the lottery. From getting that dream home to living a debt-free life, winning big would be a life changing experience. By helping either your loved ones or a good cause, you’d be able to give something back to the community as well. So if you want to make it happen, you need to make sure you have a ticket for the next big draw!